Receptacle closure



Sept. 22, l925.

A'. L. MEROLLE REGEPT'ACLE cLQsURE Filed Sept. 30. 1924 NEXT- f INVENTOR i021- Agar? tured and'which may be readily loosenedl Patented Sept. 22, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUGUSTUS L. MEROLLE, 01E-BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

` nEcEr'rAcLE cLosUaE.

. Application led September 30, 1924. Serial No". 740,836.

To all whom it may concern.' i

Be it known that I, AUGUSTUS L. MEROLLE, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Receptacle Closures, of which the following is a speciication. Y

This invention relates to a receptacle closure, and an object of the invention is to provide a closure of the simple single thread screw type and in which means is rovided for enabling ready removal of the c osure.

A further object is to provide a cap which may be very easily and cheaply manufacfrom sealing position upon the receptacle by striking against the cap with a suitable instrument to distort portions of the cap from their normal conditions.

A further object is to provide a cap which has parts adapted to be distorted by being struck so as thereby to loosen the cap, and to arrange said arts in such relation to the receptacle that t ie act of striking 'said parts will be not likely to injure or break the receptacle.

A further object is to provide a capin which the portion thereof subjected to direct sealing pressurein use comprises distortable corrugations.

A further object is to provide a cap in which the portion thereof which exerts seali-ng pressure against the receptacle is partly corrugated and partly uncorrugated.

A A:further object is to provide a cap in which the portion .thereof which is designed to exert a direct downward pressure against lthe upper annular odge of the receptacle is made up of distortable corrugations, and in which an uncorrugated portion is provided forfexerting a wedge-like diagonal pressure against the receptacle to provide a proper seal for the receptacle. v

Other objects and aims of the invention, more or less specic than those referredto above, will be in part obvious and in part pointed out in the course of the following description of the elements, combinations, arrangements of parts and applications of principles constituting the invention, and

the scope of protection contemplated will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawingswhich are to `be taken as apart of this specification, and in which I have shown merely a preerred form of embodiment of the inven- Fig. 1 is a side elevational view, partly in section, of a closure and illustrating the same as applied onto a receptacle.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of a portion of the closure appearing in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a similar top plan view but illustrating a modified form of the distortable corrugations, and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary detail sectional view taken upon the line of IV--IV of Fig. 1.

Referring to `the drawings for describing in detail the structure therein illustrated, the reference character L indicates the receptacle, which is of course open at its upper end and which is preferably provided with an annular outstanding bead 1 thereon spaced downwardly from the upper end of the receptacle. the upper end of the receptacle there is provided the usual outstanding thread or threads 2 with which the closure is intended to engage by inter-rotation of the receptacle and closure in the usual manner.

The reference character G indicates generally the closure device, the same being made up of a cover part 3 and an annular marginal flange 4 provided thereon for depending about the exterior` of the receptacle. The entire closure is formed from a single piece of sheet metal pressed or drawn into shape, and the flange portion thereof is pressed to provide the thread or threads as 5 therein for engaging the thread or threads 2.

It should be here noted that the flange vportion of the present cap may be made up in any appropriate form and may be provided with a single continuous thread for engaging a cooperative single thread on the receptacle, or it may be provided with divided threads, or thread lugs, for cooperating with divided threads or thread lugs provided upon the receptacle, or otherwise. The drawing herein however illustrates a single thread receptacle and closure since such closures are ordinarily the most diiiicult to remove and since thereforel the value of the present improvement will be most clearly apparent. y

The annular portion 6 of the cover part 3 which directly overlies the u'pper annular edge surface of the receptacle, and which therefore exerts a direct downward pressure Between the bead and against the edge surface of thereceptacle,

`which are preferably provided b is formed with, or made up of, corrugations bending in portions as 7-7 so as to stan closer to the receptacle than the intermediate portions v 8-8, and so as thus to provide diagonally f 7-7 will engage directly against the material of the receptacle, or against the gasket if such be employed, and will be subjected to direct upward pressure tending to return them to their normal positions in the planev of the portions '8.

The pressure which may be exerted by forced rotation of a single thread cap may easily be sufficient to evenu partly ret-urn the portion 7 upwardly to the plane of the portions 8, and it w1ll therefore be apparent that in all average cases the additional force required to return the portions 7 to a sufficient height for loosening the cap threads from the receptacle threads may be readily applied in the form of light blows struck by a suitable instrument, as for instance a knife handle, downwardly against the upper surface of the portions 8.- Theseblows will cause the stretched metal in the portions 9, already under considerably crushing strain,

to yield and return to a set condition with the portions 7 relatively elevated.

In striking downwardly upon the upper surface of the ortion 6, or uponthe upper annular edge of, theflange portion 5, that is upon the angular juncture between the pori tions 5 and 6, each blow thus struck will of course not only roduce a set of the corrugations in a attened condition but will also cause a certain and definite momentary .downward movement of the adjacent por-v tion of the flange and thus cause said portion to release the adhesive grip which it may have secured upon the receptacle due to the presence of rust or corrosion or to the presence of lacquer or other coating between the metal of the fiange and the surface of will be necessar only to' strike a few lightl blows downwar ly against the upper Surface probability of injury to the we ge-acting force, against the inner annular corner surface of the receptacle( Since these portions of the closure and receptacle are smooth and uncorrugated they'may be depended upon to provide an appropriate seal in some instances without an interposed gasket, but preferably a gasket disk as 11 is employed which extends into position between. said surfaces andprovides a positive and efficient seal therebetween.

preferably .extending also into position between the upper-edge surface of the receptacle and the under surface of the corrugated portion 6 and is preferably of suitably plastic or yieldable material so that it will permit the depressed ortions o fthe corrugations to become em edded therein and so that its portions between the deressed portions of the corrugations will ulge upwardly and lill the raised portions of the corrugations, as most clearlyseen in Fig. 4, thus providing a further efficient seal between the receptacle and the'closure. A certain amount of-wrinkling which will be occasioned in the marginal portions of the gasket 11 due to the lateral bending thereof about the wedge-acting sealing surface 10 will be readily located and accommodated between the depressed -portions 7 of the oorrugations. employed a certain amount of pressure may be felt there through by the raised portions of the corrugations but not in suicient'force to in any material extent interfere' with the return setting of the manner as above set forth.

In the modification Fig." 3, thestructure is identical in all respects to that above set forth except that in this instance the corrugations of the `single line of epression extending .zig-zag across the portion 6 and circmferentially thereof. In this form of corrugation the dportions extend `transversely g of the receptacle but provide' -said upper edge of the rece tacle and thus relieve .the wedge-acting sea ing 'portion 10 The gasket 11 has its marginal portion:

portions 9 the Where the gasket is' 5 ortion 6 take the form of a' of a greater proportion of its responsibility. As many changes could be made 1n thls construction without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the folthey provide a much less friction hold upon the surfacel of the receptacle than would bethe case if the andV uncorrugate .y The provision of the corrugations therefore contribute largely 1n rendering this cap readily removable.

It is a matter of importance also to note that the corrugations provided upon the portions 6, and extending, as they do, trans-A versel thereof 'to closely adjacent the upper e ge of 'the flange 4, while being of such a character as to be readily collapsed or distorted when struck are nevertheless of such strength that they" will not give or collapse to any appreciable extent under the sure which is ordinarily incident to the forcedinter-rotation of the cap and receptacle. It is intended that they shall be in fact sufficiently strong so that they will stand up under this latter pressure even where said pressure is carried to such an Vextent as to cause some distortion of the threads 5 on the flange. By making the corrugations thus relatively stron r, against the normal distorting strains, t an the threads it will be apparent that the corrugations will maintain their shape while being operated upon as hereinabove set forth and yet that the threads will give and yield as may be required 'to enable them to properly conform to the exact contour of -the threads of the receptacle and thus properly interengage and cooperate with said threads.

Having thus described my-invention, what I lclaim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. lA receptacle closure comprising a cover part and a flange part, means comprised in the flange part by which to urge t-he cover part downwardly against an upper edge surace of the receptacle, and the seal-forming portions of the cover part overl ing the annular edge of the receptacle avmg conortions 6 were left smooth presformat-ions adapted to be distorted by blows struck downwardly thereon towards said edge to thereby release the flange part from the receptacle.

2. A receptacle closure comprising a cover part and a flange part, means comprised in the flange part by which to urge the cover part downwardly against an upper edge surface of the receptacle, and the seal-forming portion of the cover party overlying the annular edge of the receptacle having corrugations provided thereon manually distortable to release the flange part from the receptacle.

3. A receptacle closure comprising a cover part and a. flange part, means comprised in the flange part by which to urge the cover part downwardly against an upper edge surface of the receptacle, and the seal-forming portion of the cover part overlying the annular edge of the receptacle being bent to provide a. plurality of depressed parts therein spaced apart around said portion extending toward the receptacle to receive pressure therefrom, and the material comprising said depressed parts being distortable by blows struck thereagainst to render said depressed parts less deep and thereby release the flange part from the receptacle.

4. A receptacle closure comprising a cover part anda flange part, means comprised in the flange part by which to urge the cover part downwardly against an upper edge surface of the receptacle', and the seal-forming portion of the cover part overlying the annular edge of the receptacle being bent to .provide a plurality of wall portions arranged to receive pressure from the receptacle and beingl disposed at an an le to the direction of said pressure soas t ereby to render said walls readily manually distortable by blows struck downwardly thereagainst-for relieving said pressure and thus releasing the flange part from the receptacle. v

5. A receptacle closure comprising a cover part and a flange part, means comprised in the flange part by which to urge the cover part downwardly against an upper ledge surface of the receptacle, and the seal-froming portion of the cover part overlyingthe annular edge of the'receptacle being corrugated by corrugations which extend transversely of said edge and which are readily distortable by blows struck downwardly thereon toward said edge for therebyl releasing the flange part from the receptacle. In witness whereof I affix m si ature.

AUGUSTUS L. Mlil'RO LE. i 

